Monthly Archives: December 2013

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What did you want to cook, eat, and read about through the months of 2013? We always find it instructive and entertaining to look back over the past year and see what you loved.

In October it was Jamie Oliver’s chicken in milk, hearty casseroles, and pets dressed up like food for Halloween. We had some advice on ingredients you shouldn’t skimp on, and some really smart IKEA kitchen hacks.

Where would society be without ridiculously cute cats made out of food? NOWHERE that’s where. These accounts on Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, etc. made us smile, made us think, and of course made us super hungry.

Q: I was vegetarian for 12 years, and vegan for the last 8 of those, but recently made the transition back to eating dairy, eggs, and meats. I’m excited about eating a variety of new-to-me foods, but I’m pretty clueless as to how to handle and cook them, meat in particular.

This year marked the launch of our Gatherings from The Kitchn series, where every month we shared a real-life party we (the editors) hosted in our own home. There was Faith’s polenta party, Anjali’s backyard movie party, Emma’s beer-bottling party, and of course as you just saw, my own winter cocktail party — among many others. Part of why we started doing these parties this year is that we wanted to show you, our readers, that it’s possible to throw beautiful, delicious, fun parties all without breaking the bank.

For each party we offered a set of tips to help you do it yourself. From how to throw a party in a small apartment to how to create a great dinner party atmosphere, here’s a look back at all our advice:

Exploding potatoes, curdled soymilk, bitter chicken stock, uncooperative bread dough — we all experience the occasional disaster in the kitchen, and it is always followed by the same thought: how can I make sure that doesn’t happen again? That’s when our readers step in, offering knowledgeable advice about what might have gone wrong and how to avoid the same problem next time. This year they tackled a wide variety of cooking missteps, from runny cakes and smelly kale to cracking dutch ovens and no-longer-nonstick pans.

Some skills are essential for good cooking, and some are just really really handy to know. How to properly sear meat and whip cream would both fall in that first camp, and wrapping a burrito so it doesn’t fall apart and making a buttermilk substitute when you’re all out fall in the other. We love sharing these kinds of skills and tips with you on The Kitchn, and we’ve worked hard this past year to bring you ones that we think will truly help your cooking. Here are fifteen that we don’t want you to miss: